Need to add a few ounces to your box cars (or any covered car)? Ten US pennies weigh almost exactly one ounce. Stick them together with superglue and cement them in the car. Since each penny weighs 1/10 oz., very accurate weighting can be done. This works well for box cars, tank cars, covered hoppers and gondolas, and passenger cars.
Grab Iron Posts
David Yadock’s Dry Gulch & Western Railroad – Part 4
By David Yadock
Dry Gulch & Western – A Photo Series Part 4
Continuing along with this series about the Dry Gulch & Western I’ll explain one of the scenery techniques I used for the layout. I decided early on to use some “old school” techniques. Due to the size of the layout and various cost considerations I used the tried and true method of chicken wire and plaster. I started with a rough frame using dimensional pine boards. That created the contours of the mountains. I then covered the wood framework with chicken wire to further form the shapes of the mountains. After that was done, I draped plaster-soaked Crown C-fold paper towels to the wire. Some of that work was difficult to accomplish since many of the mountains are very vertical. Once that plasterwork was done, I added more plaster to cover the paper towels. This added more strength and texture to the mountains. The plaster I used was standard Hydrocal plaster. The one issue I encountered was that it is very quick drying and would usually set within about 20 minutes. So, the plaster work had to be done in small batches. I would speed up the entire process by using multiple aluminum turkey roasting pans to mix the small batches of plaster. These are inexpensive and very flexible. The flexibility of the pan allowed for easy cleaning. They were also large enough to allow the paper towels to be dipped into the thin plaster. I used around 8 pans at a time and by the time I got to using the 8th pan the plaster in the first pan was completely dry and could be cleaned out just by flexing the sides of the pan. I could usually do about 15-20 batches in an evening! By the way, there was around 900 pounds of plaster used for the mountains. Now, lets see some more of the layout.
Photo 16 gives you a view of the aisle that you just walked down in the previous photo set. Allentown is on the right of the aisle and Newport is on the left. This photo gives a really nice shot of the Newport yard and the shipping basin tracks. It also shows the small control panel for Allentown on the right.
Photo 17 shows the small wooded bridge on the way to Gornitzka Crossing. It is a Campbell kit. At Gornitzka Crossing you will find a sawmill operation (only the log off-loading and finished lumber loading areas are on the layout), a stockyard, and a meat processing plant. As mentioned earlier in this series there is a bi-level station fashioned after John Allen’s station at Corsa/Cross Junction. My station copies the same station naming idea by having the lower station named Gornitzka Crossing and the upper part of the station named Hunter’s Glen. The blue building in the photo is Scole’s Hideout, a speakeasy of sorts. The tall timber trees in the center of the photo are constructed using Jack Work’s method of making trees. Each tree takes about 2 hours to construct. To the right of those trees is the Ellison main yard. The hill and forest functions as a view block.
Photo 18 shows a more expansive view of Gornitzka Crossing. Some of the scenery in this area was originally on Paul Scole’s layout. I was able to salvage some of it and place it on my layout. That was very challenging. The tracks on the left are the mainline to the town of Dry Gulch. The wooden tunnel portal on the left allows a narrow-gauge line to join up with the standard gauge mainline.
Photo 19 gives a better view of the narrow-gauge tunnel portal and the mountainous scenery to come. Yes, the mountain on the left is another view block. If you look closely you will be able to see the town of Alpine at the top of the photo.
Photo 20 gives a more panorama view of the overall scene. We are almost ready to enter Dry Gulch; it is on the bottom left out of view. This photo shows yet another forest of tall timber trees. You can also see a hint of one of my largest bridges in the distance on the extreme left. The mountain in this photo completely hides the town of Alpine that resides against the upper back wall of the layout.
Next time we will enter Dry Gulch, the namesake town of the layout. There will be even more views of the mountains and some of the many bridges that traverse them.
Eastside Get Together Clinic
Announcing the Eastside Virtual Get Together Clinic to be held on THURSDAY, July 16, 2020 at 7:00 PM Pacific Daylight Time
Hello, everyone!
Yes, the Eastside Get Together Clinic is alive and well during the Coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic. Although for the time being (and that may be a while), the Eastside Clinic has become the Eastside Virtual Get Together Clinic. Our next virtual Clinic will be held using ZOOM next Thursday, 07/16, (We have switched back to Thursdays by popular demand!). One of the benefits of virtual clinics and meetings is that the barriers of geographic distances (and traffic woes) are removed. All you need is a computer and an internet connection! So I would like to extend an invitation to the entire 4th Division and encourage you to join our Clinic next Thursday, meet some of the modelers here in the area and see some of the outstanding model work that is being done in this area. The log in info for the clinic will be published in the Grab Iron a couple of days before. So be sure and keep an eye out for the log in announcement in the Grab Iron.
Our virtual Clinic this month is titled “Modeling Lighting on a Modern Era Layout” and will be presented by Larry Sloan. Larry is a very talented local modeler that is in the early stages of building a new layout. He will talk about products and the techniques that he has used for layout lighting, building and street lighting.
The Zoom meeting will open 30 minutes in advance of the meeting for folks to visit.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88155574617?pwd=Rm01a1RhaGNralJnWWVZcVkvbmRDZz09
Meeting ID: 881 5557 4617
Password: 831769
After the Clinic, we will have some time for other folks to show off their latest model work in our “Show and Brag” segment. The Clinic will wrap up with some administrative comments and quick announcement about our future virtual Clinics.
Alex Brikoff, 07/10/2020
David Yadock’s Dry Gulch & Western Railroad Part 3
By David Yadock
DRY GULCH & WESTERN, A PHOTO SERIES PART 3
A little more about the Dry Gulch & Western. As you can see in previous photos the layout is illuminated with 37 recessed can light fixtures. They are really nice to have unlike surface lighting, that type of lighting usually detracts from the layout scenery. All the bulbs are LED large spotlights and were swapped out a few years ago. Each light is between 800 and 1100 lumens. Originally there were quartz lights that lit the layout but they produced a tremendous amount of heat in the train room. The cabinets in the room are constructed out of birch veneer plywood and I custom made them to fit the layout. They provide a large amount of shelf storage space.
Now on to the layout. Turning to the left from the previous photo series and moving down the main aisle of the train room we finally see a hint of Allentown on the left in photo 11. We can also see more of the actual layout and the mountainous scenery. About dead center in the photo is the Dry Gulch control panel. All control panels are back lit to allow for night operations.
Photo 12 shows the turntable and that SP cab forward. Yes, amazing how flat surfaces collect “stuff”, a lot of my paints and supplies have taken residence near the turntable! This photo shows the staging yard, the high line (mainline) passes directly in front of that yard, goes over a bridge, and then enters a tunnel. The mainline continues around the room corner. Those mountains help hide the room corner. Please note the two tracks that make a sweeping curve at the bottom of the photo. This is one of the junction areas that join the high line to the river line. The closest track at the bottom of the photo goes to Taylor Junction and on to the river line. The next track up goes to South Ellison Yard and on to the high line.
Photo 13 gives a great view of some of my paints and paint brushes! In the dead center of the photo is Taylor Junction. Directly above all my paints is South Ellison Yard. It is a 3 track thru yard. It functions as a ready track and small sorting yard. Tucked into the corner between the mountains is the city of Ellison and its 7 track stub yard. I did install one thru track in the yard to allow for easier passenger train entrances and exits. The yard somewhat follows John Alllen’s design and includes on the right of the yard his famous “cut-off” track. Yes, that is another junction track to allow trains to go from the high line to the river line. It enters a tunnel, dives down and then tucks around Ellison yard. The track comes out of a tunnel at Gornitzka Crossing, that town is located to the left of that stand of tall timber trees. Yes, it features a scratch-built rendition the famous two-level station that was on the Gorre & Daphetid.
Photo 14 gives a view of the Ellison control panel and my collection of paints. You can see that I use car cards for my train operations. Taylor Junction station is right above the control panel. The first track at the bottom right of the photo takes you directly to Newport yard. The second track up takes you to Newport station while the third track comes from Newport station.
Photo 15 gives a front view of the control panel and car card boxes. Again, Taylor Junction station is right above the control panel. It is a Campbell kit. Directly above the station is South Ellison Yard. To the extreme right you can see how Newport station serves both lower level tracks and upper level tracks.
That’s it for this portion of the tour. Next time we will travel further down the mainline and see more close-up photos of the scenic Gornitzka Crossing area.
David
Chuck Ricketts Fantasy Island Railroad – Part 5
Click here to read the fifth article on Chuck Ricketts Fantasy Island Railroad.
Bremerton Northern July 2020 Flimsy
Click here to read the July 2020 issue of The Flimsy Board from the Bremerton Northern Model Railroad club.
Upcoming North End Clinic
The North End clinic is planning on continuing it’s virtual clinics throughout the summer because, well, what else are we going to do?
This month, our esteemed 4D leader, Russ Segner, will be presenting a clinic on Running a Logging Operation.
Here are the meeting details.
When: Thursday, July 2, 2020 at 7:30pm
(lobby opens at 7:15pm)
Click here to join the Zoom Meeting:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82032715830?pwd=cTlod1g4RUpjNER1emNVYzJNY0dvdz09
Meeting ID: 820 3271 5830
Password: 979222
See you then!
Lisa Murray
4D Election Results
The election for one Director position and the 4D Superintendent has concluded.
Ed Ives will return for another term as a Director and Russ Segner will serve another term as 4D Superintendent.
A total of 14 paper ballots with 14 votes for each candidate were returned by mail.
A total of 105 completed email ballots were returned, with 104 votes for Ed Ives and 105 votes for Russ Segner.
Congratulations to Ed and Russ!
Respectfully submitted,
Lisa Murray, Nominating Committee Chair.
There’s another NMRA Virtual Convention This Weekend
By Lisa Murray
Tomorrow, June 27, the NMRA is broadcasting another twelve hours of model railroading clinics and layout tours on both Facebook Live and YouTube. Here is the information that you need to know:
NMRAx Virtual Model Railroad Convention
When: Saturday, June 27, 2020 6am to 6pm EDT
Full event details: https://bit.ly/NMRAx62720
Where to watch:
Facebook: https://bit.ly/NMRAfacebook
YouTube: https://bit.ly/NMRAyoutube
Here is the schedule (note–times are EDT):
Like last time, it starts in the wee hours of the morning for the West cost. Grab a triple espresso and have fun!
Lisa Murray, 4D Communications Chair
communications@4dpnr.com
David Yadock’s Dry Gulch & Western Railroad Part 2
By David Yadock
DRY GULCH & WESTERN, A PHOTO SERIES PART 2
This is the continuation of the photo series of my layout. First, a little more about my layout. The Dry Gulch & Western’s mainline is comprised of two large ovals. These ovals are folded over themselves creating four loops of mainline track circumnavigating the room. There is a “high line” that winds its way up to the mountains and a “river line” that goes down to the Hayes River area. The Hayes River area is 29 inches above the floor while the high line climbs to over 60 inches above the floor. There are several junction points where the loops of track are connected to get you from the high line to the river line. In this part we will travel further down the mainline and go past Newport, another one of my larger towns. There are three major towns on the layout. Allentown/South Allentown (partially shown in the first series), Newport, and Ellison. These comprise the three big cities but there are several smaller towns along the mainline. Allentown is virtually complete, but Newport and Ellison remain to have scenery finished. The track is all in and functional for operations. Only the structures need to be built, lots of them! Let’s get started.
Photo 6 gives you one last look at South Allentown with its busy industrial area. You can see the tunnel entrance at the extreme left of the photo. That portion of the mainline spirals underneath the layout and goes across the doorway to the Newport area as seen in photo 5 of the last series. You can get a good view of the row of “company houses” and the tilt can coaling tower at the engine facilities.
Photo 7 gives you a view of the tail end of Newport yard. The blue foam in the bottom left of the photo is part of the shipping channel. There will be a bascule bridge and side dump ore loader for dumping ore into small barges. Newport is a very active part of the layout and the Newport yard operator is kept very busy. Also, about dead center in photo 7 there is a siding. This is a small town that will be called Scopa. During operating sessions, a locomotive is parked on that siding. It is maintained there for pusher service on the spiral up to South Allentown.
Photo 8 shows better view of the Newport yard and control panel. Directly behind the yard is the car ferry slip. The large brick building on the left is Newport station (it is partially finished). Attached to the station is a large Railway Express Agency terminal. As we travel further back on the photo (where the city building flats are located against the wall) is a 3-track staging yard. It is 16 feet in length. This staging yard is a thru yard to allow for both east and west trains to stage. It is also electrically divided in half to allow for a total of 6 trains to be stored while they are not in use. Each of the 6 sections can be electrically shut off while trains are not in use. This yard was added much later in the construction of the layout. I found that if I was to allow for operations, I would need a handy place to store full trains and this yard provides such space.
Photo 9 gives a better view of the Newport yard and car ferry slip. The Newport station serves both the “high line” and the “river line” mainlines. The river line is located at the base of the station and goes directly behind the station. The high line is on the elevated track that you can see about halfway up to the right of the building. The big pink foam section in the middle of the photo can be completely raised up to allow for maintenance of track. This lift out section is about 2 feet by 5 feet in size. Now what is sitting atop that Sunray tank car?
Photo 10 gives a view of the yard throat lead along with the track leads to the car ferry slip. Newport yard is a tricky yard to operate. First it is a stub yard. Second, you enter two of the tracks from one direction while you have to enter the third track from the opposite direction. Operating this yard requires lots of planning of car movements. To the extreme left is Allentown (again, we will see that later in the series) directly in the center of this photo is the Ellison turntable (where the SP cab forward is parked, yes in this photo it is rather small in size!). I will be constructing a roundhouse and engine service facility at that location. Further back in the far corner of the room will be the city of Ellison. In this photo Ellison is about 30 feet away from you. To the left of Ellison begin some of the mountains that the Dry Gulch & Western trains have to traverse to get freight to their customers.
In the next series of photos, we’ll travel even further down the mainline and maybe even see part of that illusive city of Allentown!
David